Arts and entertainment reports from The Times, national and international news services and the nation’s press.

PEOPLE WATCH

Hey, Babies, Let’s Do Lunch: Barely a month old and still hooked up to machines to help them eat, the Iowa septuplets already have star quality--and an agent to help sort out all the offers. Their parents, Bobbi and Kenny McCaughey, signed with Nashville’s Ambassador Artist Agency, which will handle the family’s media dealings--fielding 50 to 100 calls a day--as well as any publishing, photo and movie deals. “These are very unpresumptuous people, very honest,” said agent Wes Yoder. “That’s why the story has resonated with people around the world.” The little McCaugheys--the world’s only living septuplets--were born Nov. 19. Their parents said this week that Kenneth, Alexis, Natalie, Kelsey, Brandon, Nathan and Joel are in fair condition at Blank Children’s Hospital in Des Moines, breathing on their own.

Actor’s Mom Cries Foul: Actor Matt Damon (“John Grisham’s The Rainmaker,” “Good Will Hunting”) tries to be philosophical about the notoriety that comes with being Hollywood’s flavor of the month. But his mother cringes at the thought of her 27-year-old son being caught in the star-maker machinery. “He’s become a commodity,” Nancy Carlsson-Paige, a professor at Lesley College in Cambridge, Mass., told the Washington Post. “He’s a product, and people use him.” She was disgusted to see him on the cover of Vanity Fair this month. “I hadn’t seen the magazine before. I was so shocked,” Carlsson-Paige said. “Hundreds of pages of advertisements for things nobody needs. My beautiful boy is on the cover; really at some level he’s being used to sell the products.”

POP/ROCK

Relapse for Navarro: Guitarist Dave Navarro of the rock bands Jane’s Addiction and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who was in and out of rehab before getting sober five years ago, told the Web-based news-gathering service Addicted to Noise that he and an unnamed friend relapsed about six months ago--and his publicist told USA Today that Navarro has been using hard drugs recently. “We were both five years sober and we went out and got high out of the blue,” Navarro said of his relapse. Publicist Ken Phillips told USA Today: “I wouldn’t say he’s a drug addict or dying. He says he’s experimented, but he doesn’t recommend it, and he’s not saying he’ll never do it again.” Navarro, 30, told Addicted to Noise that he documented on film a call he made to a rehab clinic last week while he was shooting up hard drugs. Contacted Thursday, Phillips said he had nothing to add to the comments he made to USA Today. Navarro was unavailable.

Rocker Perkins Partially Paralyzed: Rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Carl Perkins is partially paralyzed after suffering his third and most serious stroke in a month. The 65-year-old writer of Elvis Presley’s classic “Blue Suede Shoes” was in stable condition Thursday in intensive care at Jackson-Madison County General Hospital in Jackson, Tenn. “He’s not in good shape now,” son Stan Perkins said. “It’s very serious.” He said the stroke on Tuesday left his father paralyzed on the left side of his body. Perkins underwent surgery in June to clear a blockage in an artery leading to his brain. He had a mild stroke Nov. 20 and another on Dec. 2. Before Tuesday’s stroke, he had been beginning physical therapy. Perkins has been acknowledged as an inspiration by countless rock ‘n’ roll artists, including the Beatles, who recorded some of his songs.

TELEVISION

Cartoons for Children’s Rights: Animators from Disney, Warner Bros., Columbia TriStar, Nickelodeon, MTV, the Cartoon Network and HBO have joined with other artists from around the world to produce a series of cartoon public-service announcements on behalf of children’s rights. The campaign ultimately will consist of 100 30-second spots that “will continue our fight for improved health care, education and quality of life for every child born,” said Carol Bellamy, executive director of UNICEF, which is coordinating the effort. The first spots are expected to begin airing on TV stations in January.

QUICK TAKES

The Alligator Lounge in Santa Monica, shut down last week by the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, plans to stay closed and hopes to renovate and acquire a full liquor license before reopening in the first quarter of next year, a spokeswoman for the nightclub said Thursday. . . . Bo Diddley, the Mills Brothers and the late Paul Robeson and Roy Orbison are the recipients of the 1997-98 Lifetime Achievement Awards presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences and will be officially acknowledged in a ceremony during Grammy Week in New York City in February. The Trustees Awards, which recognize outstanding contributions in a nonperforming capacity, will be presented to the songwriting team of Holland-Dozier-Holland and BMI President and CEO Frances Preston. . . . “NBC Nightly News” will devote most of tonight’s program to a special report on the crisis in Iraq. . . . VH1 will air the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony as a two-hour special on Jan. 19, a week after the actual event in New York City. The inductees include the Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, the Mamas and the Papas, Lloyd Price, Santana and Gene Vincent. . . . Rapper Mack 10 will host his second annual Christmas toy giveaway for kids age 12 and younger Saturday from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. at Rogers Park in Inglewood. . . . The Laugh Factory on the Sunset Strip will serve free Christmas dinners for the needy in four seatings on Thursday.